Celebrating Presidents *Open Thread*

As Presidents Day approaches, I have to wonder how many of us are celebrating like the current President and his family? My guess is, not many.

Yes, while many are still reeling from the onslaught of winter, power outages, massive snow falls, or even drought, what has our President been doing? Oh, I bet you can guess…That’s right, golfing in California with his pals, according to My Desert (h/t to a Facebook friend for this):

After back-to-back meetings about drought and international politics on Friday, President Obama has settled on simpler plans for Saturday: Golfing with old friends.

Obama does not plan to leave Sunnylands today. He will stay in the estate, playing golf on the Sunnylands course with three friends from Hawaii, according to the White House. Obama is playing golf with Bobby Titcomb, Greg Orme and Michael Ramos, all childhood friends.

[…]

These are the same friends that Obama played with during his last visit to the Coachella Valley, when he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping at Sunnylands last June. During that trip, Obama played the Sunnylands course twice, which means he should be familiar with its twists and turns of the quirky course when he tees off today. […] (Click here to read the rest.)

Nice of all of us to give Obama’s buddies a day of gold on our dime. But hey, there’s nothing else going on these days to take the President’s attention, so what the heck, right? Ahem.

But wait – where is the First Lady? Well, not with Obama. Oh, no. We have been kind enough to send the First Lady and daughters on a lovely ski trip to Aspen for the weekend. I know, I know – at least they are dealing with snow like so many others, right? Yeah, right. And because air travel hasn’t been disrupted enough with these major storms, guess what they did for her? Yep – shut down the airport:

Michelle Obama and the extremely rich collided in the air Friday … when the Aspen Airport apparently shut down for an hour to facilitate a fun-filled ski weekend for Michelle and her kids.

The First Lady flew in late yesterday to the ridiculously in-your-face show of wealth on the tarmac. According to the New York Post, the airport was shut down for security reasons and some private jet setters were just PISSED.

It’s one of the most congested weekends of the year at the Aspen Airport … several hundred jets descend on the ski city for the long President’s Day weekend. […] (Click here to read the rest.)

Tough luck, suckers – you happened to pick the same place to go ski as the First Lady, so too bad if your flights got all screwed up. Your tax dollars were busy going to making sure the First Lady and Daughters did not have to deal with any of you people paying for their trip. Oh, and too bad if it messes up YOUR vacation. Oh, well!

Sigh.

Well, this is the time of year when we celebrate two of our most notable presidents,George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. The latter of whom, sadly, the vast majority of young people do not know anything about these days. Seriously. Our Educational system at work, it seems. Anyway, how about a couple of notable quotes from those two to remind us of our greatest presidents? Here we go, beginning with our first president, Washington:

I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is the best policy.

GEORGE WASHINGTON, Farewell Address to the People of the United States

Truth will ultimately prevail where there is pains taken to bring it to light.

GEORGE WASHINGTON, letter to Charles M. Thruston, Aug. 10, 1794

As a very important source of strength and security, cherish public credit. One method of preserving it is, to use it as sparingly as possible; avoiding occasions of expense by cultivating peace, but remembering also that timely disbursements to prepare for danger frequently prevent much greater disbursements to repel it; avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions of expense, but by vigorous exertions in time of peace to discharge the debts, which unavoidable wars may have occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burthen, which we ourselves ought to bear.

GEORGE WASHINGTON, Farewell Address, Sep. 17, 1796

However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.

You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you can not fool all the people all of the time.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN, speech, 1856

This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember it or overthrow it.

23 Responses to “Celebrating Presidents *Open Thread*”

Dang, what a winter! We have attempted to conserve electricity for the essentials of heat and food. The hot air from the Capitol provides no tangible benefits!
In an interview, our representative once stated that he made a point of calling trusted friends to ask if he was “making sense” for it’s “crazy up here.” From my perspective, it’s “crazy everywhere.”
Like a few dedicated legislators, there are still television anchors who strive for accuracy in newscasts, but there is far too much skewed information saturating air time. The current focus is on the November election, but at this time there is very little enthusiasm among our friends. More importantly, I’m doubtful that a qualified person with INTEGRITY can be elected or serve as president unless the mindset of citizens changes from personal greed to patriotic goals….ASAP!

Indeed, Sassy, it does seem to be “crazy everywhere.” And maybe Obama keeps going on and on and on abt “global warming” because he really does believe if he keeps bloviating on, it WILL increase the temperatures. Ahem.

Yes, we need people of real integrity to run, and be ELECTED. I think Romney was a man of integrity, but unfortunately, lies, cheating, stealing, and slander ruled the day. Surely people will be sick of that, and the result, soon, right? One can hope…

As for integrity and politicians? If we find a few with some integrity we need to grab them quick. Not what we want but the best we can get.

Who knows, it might catch on. It might teach the others something although I must confess in all honesty that I believe it’s easier to potty train a house fly than teach a politician. Not the smartest bulbs in the chandelier. Which shows how dumb we are who elect them. Damn, I just depressed myself again.

No kidding, huh?? It isn’t enough that she already has more staff than previous First Ladies, or that she wants to be PAID for being First Lady, but these vacations for the kids sans the President is really pushing the envelope.

I realize this was a rhetorical question, but yeah, WE have to be the ones to stop this by electing people who will stand up to this kind of thing…

I’ve been very blessed this winter. So far we’ve been that little green dot on the weather map that seems to avoid everything. I couldn’t believe it, Seattle actually canceled some flights…..because of the snow in the South.

A couple of kids actually thought presidents day was about celebrating President Obama. I had to inform them, that no, that’s not what it’s about. Can’t blame them, our schools, media, everyone is obsessed over this president and everything is always all about him.

That the children were taught so little that they didn’t know what presidents day meant is truly frightening to me. The ignorance that pervades our society seems to grow daily. What a short-changing the schools are giving our kids. Young minds absorb information like sponges and for lack of good, honest information they will soak up crap.

I believe that once the stupid government combined Lincoln and Washington’s birthdays so that they could add another holiday they started this whole ignorance folly. Kids KNEW what George Washington’s Birthday and Abraham Lincolns Birthday meant. Keep it simply stupid doesn’t work with everything.

I just heard on Fox that Groupon thinks Alexander Hamilton was president. When they were informed he was not, their response? “We agree to disagree.” HUH??? This is the culmination of our educational system RIGHT there.

Oh, and I heard Huckabee say in a recent survey, children did not know George Washington was our first president. WTH????

You said it, Kenosha – this mindset of “keeping it simple stupid” ends up with people just being stupid…

Of all the idiot comments I’ve heard, and I’ve heard plenty, agreeing to disagree about “facts” is one of the most idiotic. Opinions can be diagreed with – facts cannot.

Unless and until parents get up on their hind legs and refuse to let ideology replace information in the schools our children – through no fault of their own – will in the near future be ignorant and up to their necks in debt. Both bequeathed to them by the previous generation. And that’s just wrong. That’s just intolerable.

It is truly, truly mind boggling, isn’t it? It is such a sad,s ad commentary on our educational system, as well as our cultural system, that people think opinion is equal to fact, or in their case, supersedes fact. Just astonishing…

I truly believe that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan would have worked diligently to improve the fiscal situation of this country, which in turn would have affected national security and the well-being of every citizen. Instead, the opportunist who works at nothing prevailed again.
As a certified cynic, two comments last week made me snarl. First was the oft-repeated complaint that conservatives want “one of their own” and not another McCain or Romney. The second was that the public should be “outraged” by Obama’s executive orders. Okay, outrage induces acid indigestion, but little else.
As long as unions, blacks, Latinos, the far right, the far left, media personalities, and everything in between continue to pull in separate directions, we are all stuck.

Oh, I have no doubt that they would have been far superior for our country. First of all, Romney would have gotten to work on the economy instead of prancing around playing golf and breaking the law repeatedly by dissing the law. Yep – there is a reason why Romney is polling higher than anyone else right now. And if you watch the movie, “Mitt,” you really grow to appreciate him more, and lament for the country as well…

I really believe Mitt would have done a good job. One thing I am sure of is that our economy would be in better shape and it would not be burdened with obamacare.

But Mitt, and any Republican President in the future will have a never ending battle against the liberals and the liberal press. Like Mitt any GOP candidate will be subjected to a daily dose of lies, distortions and smears. And with the establishment Republicans bound and determined to turn the party into Democrat lite I think Mitt would have had to fight them too. All in all, I am not hopeful about the future of this country.

Without an honest media democracy doesn’t stand a chance. With a media that takes sides and lies democracy doesn’t stand a chance.

A University of South Carolina textbook has one student whistleblower outraged over its accusations that President Ronald Reagan was sexist and conservatives view people as incapable of “charity” and “lazy.”
…
The mandated reading includes sections such as “Conservative Extremes in the 1980’s and Early 1990’s,” which claims Reagan “ascribed to women primarily domestic functions’ and failed to appoint many women to significant positions of power during his presidency.”
…
The excerpts sent to Campus Reform make no mention of Reagan’s appointment of Sandra Day O’Connor, the first female Supreme Court Justice; his appointment of the first female U.S. Representative to the United Nations, Jeane Kirkpatrick; Elizabeth Dole, the first female appointed to Secretary of the Department of Transportation; or that over 1,400 women were chosen by Reagan to fill powerful, policy-making positions.

Thank you for this, justine, disturbing though it was. I went to the article at Weasel Zippers, and it just got worse from there. Not only was it incredibly ideological in its writing, but the writing was terrible. How in the world did this kind of crap get into a classroom??

I hope this book is yanked and SOON. This kind of revisionist history cannot become the standard of our educational system.